Kidnapped
by sarkalias12
Summary: Julian Sark's mission: Kidnap April Winthers. The only problem is, he doesn't want to do hand her over to the Covenant.
1. Default Chapter

Julian Sark was quickly typing on is computer. His blond hair was closely shaven to his head and his immaculate white suit with black collared shirt underneath did not have the slightest cress in it. He exemplified perfection in every sense of the word.

His mission was simple. Kidnap April Winthers, the only daughter of a rich white family in New York City. The family was currently vacationing on the Mediterranean on their private yacht for their daughter's 21st birthday. Tonight there was to be a ball for all of her father's clients in Europe at a ballroom in Gibraltar, Spain. All Sark had to do was get the girl and take her to a Covenant safe house also in Gibraltar. It wouldn't be that difficult. His British charm would seduce her over a glass of champagne. Then he would lead her back door and then place her in a van.

The only complicated part of this mission was that he could not hand her over to the Covenant. Her kidnapping was in order to ensure a ransom of sorts from Winthers' father. His mission's success would only help the Covenant's end game and he could definitely not let that happen.

"Mom, I want to wear the blue dress. The black one is just so, ugh!" April Winthers exclaimed. Her mother, Patricia, wanted her daughter to wear the black full-length, long-sleeved gown that would only reveal her neck and face. April wanted to wear the light blue strapless, straight gown that show off her assets, more or less.

"April Michelle Elizabeth Anne Winthers! Do not argue with me. This ball is to ensure your father's standing with his clients. And besides this ball is black and white. You cannot wear blue. It is just not in the dress code." Patricia was right. On the invitation, the party's dress code was specified to be in black and white attire.

"Well I just won't go then," April announced. She sat down on her hotel room bed and crossed her arms.

"Oh yes you will."

"No I won't."

"Yes you will."

"No I won't. I am not going unless I get to wear the blue dress."

Her mother gave up. "Oh I give up. I am just going to have to take this up with your father then."

"Fine," April responded indignantly. The threat wasn't much of one. She knew that her father would do anything she asked him to do. He would side with her.

Patricia turned the door of April's room and walked out. She marched down the corridor of the penthouse and opened up her bedroom where she found her husband sitting down at a desk.

"Harry!" He looked up into his wife's angry face. "Your daughter refuses to wear her dress. She won't go unless she gets to wear her blue dress, but that just is not possible because the ball is specified to be in black and white."

"Let her wear the blue dress," he said calmly.

"But..."

Harry cut off his wife's protests. "Patricia I am too old to let your quarreling with our grown daughter occupy my thoughts. If she wears the blue dress then she will stand out among the rest of the party's guests and frankly I prefer to have my daughter stand out. She is special and I want to highlight that."

In the Winthers household, Harry's decision was final. Even if it was based on the fact that he knew his daughter's stubbornness and that she would not even go to the ball if she did not have her way. And frankly he needed a united front of his family for the ball tonight.

Patricia left her husband. She was completely disappointed with him. Why did he have to give into April's every want? First it was boarding school in England, and then it was a university in South Africa, after that it was fifty thousand dollar donation to the Save the Manatee Foundation in Florida. Nothing could ever be for the good of the family.

"Your father said that you could wear the blue dress," Patricia said solemnly.

"Good. I have to get dressed now and if you could leave that would be absolutely wonderful," April responded with a sarcastic influxuation in her voice. Her mother complied with her daughter's wishes.

"I knew Daddy would pull through," April thought quietly aloud. She knew that if her father had told her to wear the black dress that she would and that she would put a smile on her face for the two hundred people at her father's European company party.

Quickly she slid into the light-blue gown that she had bought earlier that day. She looked at herself in the mirror deciding on what to do with her hair. The consensus was to leave it down, straight: no muss, no fuss. She put on a light dab of concealer to cover up a small brown birthmark underneath the left side of her chin. A swish of blush and an application of lipstick later, April was almost ready. The last thing she had to do was put on shoes. This was a task. It was either the Prada heels or the Prada heels. She decided to go with the latter Prada heels.

Ten minutes later, April was walking down the steps of the most exquisite and expensive ballroom in Gibraltar. She was excited, but then again she had been through this a million times before. But still she did get a little shiver up her spin when everyone in the room had their eyes pinned on her.

"She is absolutely gorgeous," James said quietly, turning away from the bar to look at his target. His elbows held him up against the counter, giving him a causal appearance.

He watched April shake hands with her father's associates and their wives. After about fifteen minutes, she made her way over to the bar and stood next to the man who would turn her world upside down.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Alias. However April Winthers is my creation.**

* * *

Sark decided to flirt a little bit, hopefully making his task a bit easier. "Did not the dress code say that this is a black and white ball?" he asked, scanning her body with his blue eyes that matched the color of her dress.

"I believe that is correct," April responded without taking her eyes away from the bartender who was making her a martini.

"So are you breaking the dress code then?" Sark continued the jest.

"I suppose," was all April said. She noticed his accent, which intrigued her a little. Non-Americans always sparked her interest, but she opted to play hard to get which would involve her not making eye contact. If he looked as good as his voice sounded, then she probably would give into him right then and there.

The man standing next to her didn't respond with a smart comment, like she thought he would. All that was between them was silence and April hated silence.

"After all, this is my father's party." For her, this was the only comment that she could say in order to continue the conversation. She had to put herself up higher then him and establishing that was saying that she was the princess of the ball.

"It is. It is." Sark was not giving anything away.

April couldn't take it anymore. She had to look at him. What she saw was a blond haired, blue-eyed male, who looked like he was about in his mid to late-twenties, obviously had some sort of wealth, because he was dressed in an immaculate white suit (dutifully following the dress code) and had a grin seared into his face. She didn't recognize him. She figured he probably had some business relation with her father otherwise he wouldn't be here.

The man she looked into had felt her eyes upon her and introduced himself. Not with an alias. "I'm Julian Sark."

She extended her hand, "April Winthers."

Quietly he said, "I know who you are," accepting the gesture.

"So you've heard of me?"

"A little."

"Well I've never heard of you," she said matter-of-factly turning away from him to face the party. With her martini in her hand (her first one), she examined the guests. Most of them she had seen never seen before. She had spent most of her life in boarding school across the Atlantic so she missed meeting her father's business associates. To her, most of them seemed boring and stiff, but Julian Sark looked comfortable in his own skin, much to the opposite of her.

"I'm surprised." She was making this too easy. Sark had already pinned her as desperate. He could tell that she wasn't comfortable in the life she led. Her behaviors had shown it. The way she wouldn't look at him; showed that she wasn't willing to accept things, whether it is on the level of him or life.

"Are you famous or something?" April pretended to be interested, but truth be told, she really didn't care. Tonight she wanted to have some fun. And tonight, Julian Sark looked like fun.

* * *

Holding her in his arms told him this was the perfect opportunity. She trusted him by now. They had danced together for five straight songs and people were starting to notice. Sark did not want to attract attention to him so he figured this was the time to stop and get his job done.

He was having fun. No doubt about it, but his mind wasn't off his mission. Before he had left to go to the ball to establish his target he made contact with his former boss, Irina Derevko. She offered him her flat in Madrid as a place to hold Winthers, until he figured out what to do with her next. Derevko seemed interested in Winthers and perhaps maybe had a purpose for her, which would explain Irina's willingness to help Sark out with his current situation.

Sark didn't like asking for help. It made him feel weak. He had weighed through all of his options. He couldn't leave her with her family, because the Covenant would find out soon enough and kill him. He figured as long as he had the girl in possession then the Covenant could not kill him because he would have what they wanted. For most of his life he had been on the run and this would be no different. He would just have someone with him.

"Why don't we go outside for a little air?" Sark asked. It seemed like the thing to do, considering they have been dancing for twenty minutes straight and the ballroom was beginning to get stuffy, so April quickly said yes.

Before April knew it she was unconscious. The last thing she remembered was Sark placing a white cloth over her mouth, taking one breath and falling suddenly into his arms. Now waking up twelve hours later in a completely new place was definitely what she would call a shock.

* * *

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DramaQueensRule: Thanks for the review and I hope that you like the update.


	3. Chapter 3

"Mr. Sark?" a burly, Russian man asked tentatively as he knocked on the door of the study in his boss's apartment in Madrid.

"Yes?" Sark answered, not looking up from his computer screen.

"Miss Winthers is awake," he announced.

Sark looked up from his computer. Without saying a word he walked out of the study and into the bedroom where his captive was being held.

* * *

"What's going on?" April demanded as she acquired more of her surroundings. She was in one of the most comfortable beds that she had ever felt, but she felt that this wasn't the most comfortable situation. For starters, she was in a t-shirt and a pair of sweats she had never seen before and the man standing in front of her, she did not remember going home with.

"Miss Winthers," Sark greeted. He didn't want to answer her question. He figured that the questions she asked would be a better way for her to get a handle on the situation. Plus, he would only have to divulge what he wanted to.

"Where am I?"

"Madrid."

"Where are my parents?" April's mind was beginning to race. She was still in Spain but nowhere near where her parents were and she had a hunch that she had absolutely no control of her current dilemma.

He turned away from her and looked out the window to the busy streets of Madrid. "In Gibraltar." He wasn't lying. He was having tabs keep on them. His most recent update was that Mr. and Mrs. Winthers were speaking to the police and looking for a private investigator to find their daughter.

"Why am I here with you?"

"I'm going to be straight with you."

"Good. I hate people that don't tell me why the hell I am in a city that I have never been to before with a man that I hardly know."

He let out a small laugh and looked at her in the eye as he sat next to her on the bed. She had spunk and courage to be talking back to the man who had her life in his hands. "An organization I happen to be currently affiliated with has an interest in you, Miss Winthers. I was sent to kidnap you in order for the Covenant to get a ransom from your father."

"So right now I a prisoner of yours and this Covenant?"

"Correct," he concurred.

"Right," she said. April was beyond confused at this point. Why would anyone have an interest in her? It didn't make any sense. What even pushed this out farther was the fact that the man who was supposedly holding her captive was being nice about it. "Then why are you being nice to me?"

"Because of my present state of affairs I am not willing to hand you over to the Covenant yet."

"The key word being 'yet'," For the first time, April looked in Sark's eyes willingly. By looking at him, she realized that this is a man who uses everybody in his life to get the most out of him or her. And he was going to get the most out of her. "I have one more question."

"Shoot."

"Now how can I get out of this entire dilemma I happen to have somehow put myself in?" For some reason she didn't think that her kidnapping had to do with the Covenant getting money or wanting to kill her. Her instinct told her it had to do with something on an entirely different level.

"However to your disadvantage, your possibilities of getting out of this situation are not up to you."

"Great. Just great," April said loudly almost to the point of screaming. "I met you, hoping to have just a slight bit of fun at one of my father's boring parties of stiffs and then I get kidnapped! This is great. Just great." She put a sarcastic smile of her face to show that she wasn't too upset by the situation. But in all reality, she was fuming and at the point of almost crying,

"Don't get mad at me. You were the one who made my job a whole lot easier," Sark said defending himself. He looked away from her because he knew that even if she hadn't been attracted to him, he still would have completed his mission.

"No, you did not just say that. I can't believe you. How can a girl, especially a vulnerable girl, not be attracted to you?" April demanded in disbelief.

Sark was surprised that April was willing to admit that she was attracted to him. The psych evaluation he had done on her before his mission was that she hardly ever told anyone the way she felt about anything. "Why thank you," he simply said.

"Oh don't flatter yourself. The mysterious, suave, British thing you have going for you, works way too well." She crossed her arms across her chest. She didn't want to be taken advantage of anymore than she already had been.

The only thing Sark could do in response to her was laugh.

She slapped him across the face. Instantly, Sark's response was to pin her down and he did just that. He grabbed her wrists with his rough hands and forced her to lie down on the bed. An expression of complete and utter fear overcame April's face as she looked into his eyes. Realizing that this situation could not get any worse she said, "I'm sorry."

He got up off her and left April's confines. He instructed the guard of April's room to make sure that she got ready before Derevko arrived, which to his calculations was going to be in about two hours.

* * *

_Oh my god. How the hell did I get myself into this?_ April asked herself._ One minute I'm dancing with perhaps one of the best looking men I've ever seen and then here I am 3,000 miles away from New York and no possible way to contact my parents. Don't cry, April,_ she instructed herself. It didn't work. The tears were coming down like Niagara Falls.

_I made everything a whole lot worse when I slapped him. At first I thought that this might not be too bad because if we might have at least a decent kidnapper/captive relationship, then I might get out of this okay. But no, he had to laugh at the fact I was so susceptible to him and I hate when people insult me. Okay, stop blaming this on yourself April. This wasn't your fault. I mean what could Julian Sark want with me? He said though that the Covenant wants me, for something. But what? There wasn't any explanation for it. Wait, Julian did say something about how the Covenant wanted a ransom or something like that from my father? Does my dad have something to do with my kidnapping?_

_This is impossible. I have no idea what they want. I have got to get out of here. _April examined the room. There is no way she could walk out the front door of the apartment even if she knew where it was. It was too risky. Instead she turned her attention towards a window that she could easily fit her slender body into. She got up off of the bed and it took her a second to get adjusted to the floor and to let the dizziness out of her head. She attributed her lack of balance to her first martini.

Opening the window was a little bit tricky. There were two latches, which she had to open, but after she mustered up her strength they weren't too bad. Then her ultimate problem came in. She was up two stories. Great this is just my luck. However her bed did have a lot of white sheets it. Quickly, she stripped her bed and began tying the ends of the sheets together, making a long rope.

Her immediate sense of triumph was over as soon as she heard a deep voice with a Russian accent, trying his best to speak English telling her that she needed to be presentable in one hour and thirty minutes. She was told that there were two doors in her room. One was a bathroom and the other was a closet. She yelled back, "Okay!"

_Damn, okay. I have to be "presentable" in an hour and a half. What does Julian have planned for me? A trip to the living room?_ A grin came across her face as soon as she realized that this was a perfect opportunity.


	4. Chapter 4

"Andrei!" Sark asked the guard who was responsible for watching April as he walked up to him.

"Yes?" Andrei answered shaken, standing in front of April's door. Genuinely he was afraid of Mr. Sark. He had never worked under anyone who had an only business attitude about him. At least Irina asked about him about his family, but Mr. Sark was all about business.

"How long has Miss Winthers been in the shower?" It was not as much of a question as it was a demand.

Avoiding eye contact with his superior, Andrei looked at his watch and realized it had been an hour. "Miss Winthers has been in the shower for an hour."

"Shit", Sark screamed frustrated. He knew very well that even if she were a twenty-one year old teenage girl, it would not take her an hour in the shower. "Give me the key."

Without saying anything, Andrei handed the key to Sark.

Sark whipped the door open and went immediately to the bathroom where he heard the water running. He opened up the shower curtain and only saw water running out of the showerhead. "Dammit!" he yelled. Then he went back into the bedroom and saw the sheets falling out of the window. One of the ends was tied to the nightstand and the other was down handing two feet above the street.

"She likes the chase," he said calmly, even though inside he was this close to pulling a trigger the next time he saw her.

* * *

April stood on platform 10 at the train station in Madrid. She didn't have any money, but she planned on just sneaking on the train. She figured that Sark was watching her parents and would know if she contacted them, so she decided to just get to Gibraltar anyway she could. She felt she could only be reassured by seeing them and making sure that they were right in front of her.

Despite her conflicts with her family, she still loved them more than anything in the world. She idolized her dad. April never really saw Harry because of his job that kept him away and her being at boarding school since she was ten, but when they were together, they were perfect. It was the ideal father-daughter relationship and April could not help but think of her father as a superhero. He could do no wrong in her eyes.

Her mother Patricia was a different story. Whenever April and her mother were in the same room all they did was fight. Harry at least would provide a mediator between the two, but he always sided with April. Her mother felt like she was the odd one out in her family. Her husband and daughter had a perfect relationship and she was not apart of it. The mother and daughter relationship just never seemed to work. Maybe it was because they were both so much alike. Stubborn, self-confident, and beautiful were all qualities that they both possessed and neither could ever let the other get the best of them.

April let out a big sigh. She had two minutes before the train left. She was beginning to shake and wondering if this is what she should be doing. In her mind, she had a feeling that Julian would have figured out now that she was not in the shower. She knew he was smarter than that and if he wasn't then she definitely had over-estimated him.

For some reason, April could not get over the feeling like someone was watching her. It felt like someone was standing right behind her. She turned to look, but no one was there. The only people behind her were people speaking in Spanish, whom she couldn't understand. All she wanted to do was get on that train and get back to Gibraltar, where she could see her parents.

Over the speaker April heard in Spanish, "Train to Gibraltar now boarding." Even though she could not understand what the speaker was saying, she noticed all the people around her boarding the train.

She hesitated for a second, but she stood up and began walking towards the door of the train.

April was the last person outside the door of the train, but right before she stepped on, someone grabbed her arm

"Miss Winthers," Sark said with an angry undertone in his voice. He was dressed in a black Armani suit and his expression was completely calm. He knew that he was going to prevent her from going on the train and so did April, but she wasn't about to give up so easily.

"Mi dispatche, signor. Non parlo inglese," April said quickly in Italian. She knew this was stupid, but it was the only thing she had going for her.

"Miss Winthers, nice try, but no," Sark laughed.

He looked away from her, but before he knew it she had kicked him in the groin and had somehow loosened herself from his grip. A split second later he saw her running the opposite direction towards the entrance of the train station. Sark started running after her, silently cursing him for looking away from her for a second. He knew that you had to keep eye contact with your target, but her pathetic attempt of trying to get out of his hold was funny to him. He had never seen someone, deny who they were so easily as she had.

Instead of going out the entrance like he thought April would, she ran around to another other aisle of platforms. As like their first encounter, Sark thought, she is making this way too easy. He quickly came to a stop, when he saw that she couldn't go anywhere other than the area they were in. Even though this was a busy train station, there was nowhere she could go without him seeing her.

Out of the corner of his left eye he saw April go behind a cement post. Sark quickly turned to his left and smoothly walked over to where she was trying to hide. It was not working very well for her.

Her hands were plastered to the side of the post and she tried to make herself invisible. _I can't do this forever_, she thought. _He is going to find me. He knows that he has to find me._

"April, you are not getting away this time," Sark said sternly, getting so close to her so no one else could hear their conversation.

"I know," she responded calmly, avoiding the eye contact he was trying to make with her.

This wasn't a typical situation for April. She had never been so close to a man, a real man. Sark was practically hovering over her and was just centimeters from her face.

Despite, how beautiful she was April hardly ever dated. And if she did it was with guys she ultimately felt sorry for and even if she hated to use the term, pity date. Also in school she didn't have a lot of opportunities to, because all of the schools she had ever been in were all girls. She led a sheltered life and in front of her stood a man who had experienced life more than April ever thought possible.

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Hey everyone! Thanks for all the reviews I really appreciate it, after all this is my first fanfic and I need all the encouragement I can get. Hope you like the update!


	5. Chapter 5

In her mind, April's thoughts were running a mile a minute. She didn't know what was going to happen to her. After she had meekly given into Sark, she had been forced into his black Mercedes convertible and handcuffed.

She did not fight back because she was afraid of the consequences. On the way out of the train station, Julian had his gun pointed directly at her spine. In his eyes she knew that he would not tolerate another one of her escape attempts and April knew that she would not succeed at her attempt.

Sark had decided that it would not be wise to take her back to the flat, but to take her to a nightclub that was under his control during his duration as The Man's Director of Operations. April had no idea where they were going. She figured that he would probably not take her back to the apartment, but somewhere else. She had a feeling it would be someplace that he had entire control over. Just in the little over 18 hours she had spent with him, she knew that he had to be in control.

Exactly like the way he was acting right now. Calm, collected, controlled. He seemingly acted like her escape effort was not affecting him.

It was though. Inside Sark was burning. He could not believe that she had gotten so close to almost being out of his grasp. He had never had someone try to get out of his custody. Somehow though he considered that April was acting the same way Agent Sydney Bristow would. April Winthers reminded him of Sydney for some reason. Maybe it was the way that April acted around him.

On the surface she appeared not to fear him. It was like she was applying makeup to cover up something. That something was fear. Sark had a hunch. His hunch came from years of analyzing people under Irina. His hunch was that April was afraid of him. No matter how much she didn't want to admit she was. The eyes gave it away. It was the same eyes that fought against him all of those encounters he had had with Sydney Bristow over the years.

Sydney was not exactly afraid of him, but more or less of what he could do to her. She knew that if she slipped once, that Sark would get her and win. And that was something that Sydney Bristow, the Sydney Bristow, could not let happen.

That was the one difference between Sydney and April: April willingly let him win. After he had caught up with April behind the cement post, April just gave up. Sark knew that Bristow would never do that.

Agent Bristow would never submit to Mr. Sark. No matter how much he wanted her to. It would never happen.

April was different in that way. Partly he knew that she did not have the same CIA/SD-6 training that Sydney had had, but he felt that it was something different. Maybe she wanted him to re-kidnap her. What was she trying to get away from? All the signs were there, but Sark could not figure it out. What was April Winthers hiding?

These questions came to him as he was speeding on a highway trying to cut across Madrid. He was trying to divert April's sense of direction so she would not find the way back to the train station. With each step in his thought process, Sark pressed his foot on the accelerator harder and harder. He went from 70 kilometer per hour to up to 90 in a little over a minute.

His eyes directed towards his speedometer and he gently let off of the gas pedal. He glanced over to April. She looked like she was having an emotional breakdown. Tears were streaming down her face, from under her hands, which were ineffectively covering her eyes.

Before thinking about his image he wanted to project he asked April, "Are you okay?"

She didn't hear him. The cars zooming all around them were taking up all of her hearing.

He asked again, "Are you okay?" This time he put his free hand on her thigh that was protruding off the seat.

She immediately took her hand away from her face and glared at him. Surprisingly she didn't move away from his touch. She just gave him a look of disgust that went right through him.

"Are you okay?" Sark repeated for the third time.

"Am I okay? Honestly how can you be asking me that? I mean you are the man that kidnapped me and took me away from everything I know. You probably think that because I willingly gave myself to you at the train station that I want to be with you. Well your suspicions are wrong. I don't want to be here. Maybe my life is screwed up, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to face it," April expressed her feelings straight out to Sark.

He had no idea how to react. She was forceful and saw right through his thoughts. Only one person had done that before, Irina. And he knew that Irina would not be happy right now with his current situation and he didn't know how he was going to handle it when he had to meet her.

"Do you honestly have nothing to say?" April glared at him with her big brown eyes. "At all?" she encouraged negatively.

"What can I say?"

"Nothing. You're right. Nothing," she responded indignantly. Tears were still dripping from out of her eye

Right after the last syllable rolled out of her mouth a gunshot went off. It went straight through the car's left rear wheel.

Sark had been so consumed with his thoughts that his spy instinct did not notice that a black van had been following them since they had got on the freeway. He silently cursed himself as looked out his left mirror.

"Dammit! It seems the Covenant has caught up with us." He reached into the glove box and pulled out of slick black .9 millimeter revolver

"What are you going to do with that?" April asked, not putting the two obvious things together.

"This," Sark replied simply.

On the fast lane of the highway, Sark turned the Mercedes and made a complete 180 in the middle of the lane and put the car in reverse, driving backwards.

"Get down!" he yelled to April, who immediately complied. Another shot was fired by the Covenant operatives and hit the front bumper of the convertible and gave the car a large jolt. Sark then fired his gun and aimed directly for the driver's head. It was a perfect shot and the driver of the black van was instantly killed. The van spun out and the other alive operative jumped out of the van once it stopped and began firing at Sark's car, which was already making another 180 and turning off at the next exit.

"Can I come up now?" April asked hesitantly as she peeked up at Sark.

"Yes."

"Are they gone?"

"Yes. Although we need to get out of Spain."


	6. Chapter 6

Michael Vaughn and Eric Weiss, both agents for the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America, approached their colleague and friend, Sydney Bristow. They had a crisis on their hands. They all just didn't know how big it was.

"Vaughn and Weiss what's up?" she asked casually, but by the looks on their faces, she didn't think this was a social visit.

Weiss handed Sydney a manila folder. "You need to look at this Syd," Vaughn said concerned.

Sydney delicately opened the folder and saw pictures, taken by security cameras. She immediately recognized Mr. Sark with his cocky and arrogant aura about him. There was also a young woman with him that Sydney did not recognize. The woman could not have been more than in her early twenties. Fear was written all over her face. She obviously did not want to be with Sark. _And who would?_ Sydney asked herself. Although there was something about that girl, she looked vaguely familiar.

"Who is this? With Sark?" she specified.

"Her name is April Winthers. She is the only child of Harry and Patricia Winthers, a wealthy couple in New York City," Vaughn answered, before Weiss had a chance to.

A puzzled look crossed Sydney's face. "She looks familiar, but I've never even heard of her or her family before."

"Neither have we," Weiss said.

"Her parents reported her missing 36 hours ago after a ball they had thrown while they were in Gibraltar, Spain," Vaughn informed.

"When were these pictures taken?" Sydney asked.

"A little under 24 hours ago. The pictures were taken at a train station in the heart of Madrid."

"Why does Sark want with her? Do you think the Covenant has anything to do with this?"

Everyone knew that the Covenant was a touchy subject for Sydney. Anyone that might be a target of theirs had Sydney's sympathy. Weiss decided to take this one. "We all know that Sark has flexible loyalties, so we don't really know what he wants with Miss Winthers."

Sydney knew that this could mean a million things. Her analyst skills were kicking in. Maybe the Covenant wanted some money and they figured she was an easy target to get a ransom from. Or they wanted something else. Who knows what that could be? The Covenant's main goal seems to be to acquire Rambaldi artifacts and discover what the so-called "prophet" was working on.

Before she had a chance to fathom any more possible scenarios, Director Dixon was walking up to her, Vaughn, and Weiss.

"Have you two debriefed Sydney about the Winthers case?" His question directed toward the two men.

"What we could," Vaughn replied simply.

"Good. April's parents are here. They want to make a personal plea, which will not exactly have an effect on us one or another on deciding to take the case, because since it has to do with Mr. Sark our interest for April's safety is immediate." Dixon took a deep breath. "Let's go see all the details we can get about April from her parents."

Dixon directed Sydney, Vaughn, and Weiss into the conference room where there was a couple standing speaking to Jack Bristow.

"Sydney," Jack beckoned his daughter. She went up to greet them. "This is Harry and Patricia Winthers."

"It is good to meet you, however unpleasant the circumstances. I offer my hopes that your daughter will come back safely. I will do everything in my power to make sure she does," Sydney said offering encouraging words.

"Thank you," Harry said. She was being sincere and Harry liked that when he saw that in people. It made you know that deep down they were good.

Patricia didn't say anything. She felt like at any moment she would burst out crying over her missing daughter. No matter what problems the two of them, Patricia couldn't stand having no idea where her daughter was. Despite everything everyone thought, Patricia's world was April. She was all that mattered to her. She was the only thing that wasn't a lie.

"Well everyone," Dixon announced. "If we could all take our seats I will try to debrief everyone on the current situation of April Winthers."

Everyone took their respective seats, but Harry and Patricia stayed standing. Patricia was leaning on her husband with all of her weight for support.

"The last sighting of April Winthers and Julian Lazarey, also more commonly know as Mr. Sark, was a little over twenty four hours ago at Madrid's train station. A more recent development, that we cannot yet confirm, is a shooting on one of Madrid's highways. A man and a woman were seen leaving the seen shortly after a shootout with two men in a black van. As I said a moment ago, this cannot yet be confirmed. The reason for Miss Winthers' kidnapping is still a mystery..."

"Actually that is not entirely true," a voice said.

Sydney looked to see who it was. Patricia was no longer leaning on her husband for support. She was standing by herself, ready to say something extremely important. Everyone's eyes diverted towards her.

"I am not Patricia Winthers," she paused, "My real name is Petra Derevko. Miss Bristow, I am your aunt. April is your cousin."

* * *

Sorry about the cliffhanger! I just had to do it.

Thanks everyone for the positive reviews I really appreciate it. Keep reviewing and I will be more encouraged to write more. Thanks for everything!


	7. Chapter 7

"What do you mean you are Petra Derevko?" Sydney asked. She one was the only one who said anything. No one else had the courage to. She seemed to have dealt with these types of situations many times before.

"Exactly that. I am Irina's younger sister, by five years," Petra said plainly. It was fact and it felt a relief to Petra to actually say those words aloud.

Harry had taken a seat, next to Jack. Sydney gazed at the two of them. They looked so much alike. Not in looks, but in their general lives. Harry was obviously in the same position as Jack was over twenty years. Still Harry didn't know what the Derevko name meant to everyone else in that room. He still couldn't get over that she wasn't who she said she was. Their twenty-three year marriage had been a lie.

Dixon cleared his throat. "Now we obviously know why the Covenant wants your daughter. The only question that seems to be pressing, even though I have many, is what does her parentage have to with your daughter's kidnapping?"

"April is not that woman's daughter!" Harry screamed, standing up out of his chair. "She is my daughter and my daughter alone! Your motherhood is a lie. Our marriage is a lie." He sank back down into his chair and put his face in his hands, sobbing.

Sympathy overcame Jack and in a short matter of seconds he was giving Harry reassuring words. Somehow he had managed to pry Harry from his seat and lead him to a more private area where he could let everything out. Jack put a call into Dr. Barnett to have her evaluate the state of Mr. Winthers.

Meanwhile back in the conference room, everyone was still in shock. Sydney and Dixon were the only two able to say anything: Sydney because she had known this situation all too well, and Dixon because he was the Director and had to have some sort of composure over this whole dilemma.

"Are you KGB?" Sydney demanded with no pretext.

"Formerly yes," Petra answered calmly.

"Did they forget about you?" No way was Sydney going to give this woman any of her so-called "niceness."

"Yes." The spy appeared un-flinched.

"You are familiar with my mother's assignment are you not?" Sydney interrogated. She got up out of her chair and started to pace across the floor. She wanted to make Derevko more intimated.

"Yes."

"Was yours similar to hers?"

"Yes."

Sydney was getting sick of the one-word answers. They were starting to rattle her projection of a cool, un-afraid exterior. "Describe," she demanded simply.

Her niece reminded her so much of her sister at that moment. To Petra they had a similar walk when they wanted questions answered. It had happened many a times before when Petra would sneak in late after her nights out with her ex-boyfriend and Irina would be waiting for her, in her bedroom demanding to know where she was. Petra knew that Irina knew perfectly well where she had been, but for some reason Irina got enjoyment out of knowing every detail that you didn't want her to. If she didn't know any better, Petra would have thought that it was Irina interrogating her, not her daughter.

"The KGB wanted some information. At the time I didn't know exactly what it was, but they gave me the assignment. They had seen your mother's work and they figured I had the same talents she has. My mission was to befriend and pursue a relationship with a newly wealthy 28-year-old male by the name of Harry Winthers. I went to New York City, under the alias of Patricia Keating, a student at New York University studying history. Initiating the relationship was easy. I had tips from your mother." Petra was seductive. She managed to suck everyone into her every word.

Sydney had tried not to show her anger. Her story had too many parallels to her mother's. She hated knowing that other people had been through the same thing she had. Currently in the espionage world, everything seemed to surround the relations of the Derevko sisters.

Displacing her anger, Sydney continued, "What information did you acquire?"

Petra could tell that this exchange was going to be fun. It was exactly like old times. "My target was the president of an up and coming company that installed state-of-the-art security systems. Some of his clients included people of the likes of Arvin Sloane, Alexander Khasinau, and Andrian Lazarey. Certain security systems that the KGB wanted to get their hands on."

* * *

"If I take off these handcuffs, you promise not to run away?" Sark asked April in a half empty parking lot right outside the main shopping district of Madrid.

"I can't promise anything," April retorted to spite her captor.

He stared her down. After a second looking in his blue eyes and knowing that he did not want to exchange banter with her. "Okay, I promise I won't run away," April said giving into his command.

Sark unlocked the handcuffs. He stepped out of the convertible and after looking at April she did the same. Between them it seemed that looks could give away everything. Conversation wasn't needed. April had never had that type of connection before, explaining why she always felt the need to talk.

Once he started walking down the street and was a few yards in front of her, Sark looked back at April, who still standing next to the car. By her hesitation, he could sense that she needed some type of explanation for where they were going.

He walked back over to where she was standing. "April, you can no longer be April Winthers. In order for the Covenant not to find us we need to get aliases, be different people. I don't want another incident like the one that happened a little over an hour ago to happen again."

"What do you suggest?"

"We are a newly married couple on their honeymoon in Spain, on a shopping excursion before we are to go home later tonight to England. You obviously need a change of clothes. The store right here on the corner will be where you buy your first outfit. We can ask for you to change in there."

"Don't you think that it will be a little suspicious if I am in a t-shirt and sweatpants walking into a fancy boutique?" She was right it would be suspicious, but if they asked he knew that he could come up with some excuse.

"Yes, but I am sure that dropping few thousand dollars will put the sales people's inquisitions to rest," he reassured.

"Do I need a British accent or anything?" she asked, afraid that she might not be able to put up this charade if she had to change her voice.

He gave a light laugh at her concern. "No. You won't have to change to your accent. Be American. Be yourself. Like you said previously, American girls have a thing for men with accents. It will make this more believable," he paused waiting for a remark from April. He didn't get one. She knew that this had to be serious.

"Now for names," he continued. "I will be Andrew Marquette. You will be Annie Marquette."


	8. Chapter 8

"Mrs. Marquette are you ready to go?" Sark asked, making a crook in his arm for April to put her arm through.

She nodded, trying to give herself reassurance, slipped her arm through his and said, "Yes." Giving him a weak smile.

The two of them together, looking relaxed, appeared to be the perfect couple. April found it comfortable to be so close to him in his presence. But then again, this was the first time she had been in his presence without a gun pressing into her, that she was with him on her own free will, well slightly on her own free will. She still liked the way it felt.

Some people turned their heads when they saw a woman in sweatpants and a man in a very expensive looking designer suit walking together along the street of the fashion district. But besides their attire, to the outside world, they looked perfect. Like they belonged together.

Slipping into the persona of Annie Marquette was easy for April. For some reason, playing someone else was natural to her. She didn't know what to attribute the natural actress in her too, but she was an actress. Annie Marquette was happy. She recently married the love of her life and she was set up to become the trophy wife of a successful businessman. Happy, together, and fully satisfied.

Andrew, who Annie referred to as "Andy" or "Honey", was the CEO of some company in Britain that Annie had no idea what it did. She just fully appreciated the paycheck he brought home every week. Annie met Andrew on a blind date while he was in New York City for business. Six months later she was moving into his flat in London. They traveled in the social circles of London and were known for giving exquisite dinner parties.

April had managed to come up with this lie effortlessly. She liked creating in her mind a life that she would have no similarities to, especially a life that she definitely could never have after this experience.

Walking into the first store on the corner, like Julian wanted them too, April forgot everything she had been going through in the past 24 hours. The clothes consumed her. Like any normal girl, she became enveloped in the racks of clothes. The designer was someone that April had never heard of, but then again that was nothing new to her. Her mother had always expected her to know the difference between a black Gucci dress and a black Dolce dress, but she never understood the purpose of it. They were just two black dresses. Who needs to know that?

April could not exactly find what she was looking for. She liked everything she saw, but nothing stood out. It's not like she wanted to make a statement or anything. She just wanted to find an outfit that fit her newly created persona of Annie. Annie, although, was very much like April, so it could be said that April was Annie.

Looking through racks and racks of clothes, all of the clothes seemed to just be the same thing after awhile.

Then she heard, "Annie, love, look over here."

Julian had a light-blue dress in his hand. It was sleeveless and appeared to come just above the knee. From the waist it slightly billowed out, almost making the illusion of a ballerina dress. April immediately fell in love with it.

"Oh Andy. I love it," she commented, walking over to him. She placed a kiss on his cheek to keep up the appearance that they were married. It is what couples do. _Wow, I am really getting into this. I hope Julian doesn't think that I am over playing this. I am beginning to be so concerned with what he thinks. I shouldn't be. Why am I? I could easily get away from this. I could go home and be with my parents. I can't. Those guys that were shooting at us earlier, they were serious. I can't leave him to deal with those people all by himself._

* * *

"Vaughn we have to find some type of way to get April back," Sydney said determined. She had just finished a meeting with the parents of April. Finding out that you have a cousin and that she is not in the best situation that she could be, definitely gets you thinking about how much you want to take her out of that situation.

"Syd, the only way we can do that is if we find Sark," Vaughn replied. Distaste, immediately came to Vaughn's mind when he thought of the infamous Mr. Sark. Out in the field he had been the only one to give Sydney any real competition and it unnerved him to know that Sark had the capabilities of killing the woman that he loved.

The thought of April with Sark definitely twisted Sydney's stomach. She knew what he was capable of. He had seen her torture Will and in part had to do with the killing of her best friend, Francie. Both of them were not in her life right now and it had to do with her, her involvement in this torrid world of espionage. Everyone in her life was connected to this world of treachery, even people as innocent as Francie and now April, somehow get caught up in it.

"I know, but we've dealt with Sark before. He can be very flexible in his loyalties. Maybe he wants to get April off his hands."

"Syd," he paused, looking straight into his eyes, "If he wanted to get April off his hands he would kill her. He hasn't done that yet, so he obviously has some purpose for her. It could be a trap. How do we know that the Derevko we have in custody right now isn't playing us? The Covenant has Katya Derevko working for them. We don't know where she is. How do we know that the Covenant isn't in league with Petra Derevko also? Lately, Sark has been working for the Covenant. Sydney, the Covenant kidnapped you for two years. They wanted something. They still do. This very well has the pieces of a trap," Vaughn made his case.

"Vaughn," Sydney rubbed her forehead, "I can't just not do anything. Dixon gave us full jurisdiction to do what we need to find April. I am going to take advantage of that and try to get Sark along with getting my cousin back."

Even Vaughn knew that if Sydney's determination was strong enough, there was no way that he was going to be able to convince her not to go after April. "Sydney, all I am saying is that this looks dangerous. I don't want you getting hurt."

He placed his hand on her shoulder, reinforcing the persona Vaughn had taken that night while Sydney was on a mission against her nemesis Anna Espinosa; he was her guardian angel.

"I know," Sydney said out of appreciation. He had always been there for her. Always. That was it, always.


	9. Chapter 9

Walking down the streets of Madrid was the first time in a long time that April felt free. Free in the sense that she didn't have any obligations to worry about. Obviously, her current predicament of being kidnapped put her in a certain worried state, but overall she felt free. Julian was also in the same position she was because not only was the Covenant after her, but now they were also after him.

He had disobeyed their orders, and that meant hell to pay. His history with the Covenant had not been without its benefits. They had somehow convinced the CIA to take him out into public to make a trade for another agent, because the CIA had figured him useless. However to the dismay of Sark, the Covenant had discovered his parentage and with that merely offered him his life for his rightful eight hundred million dollars, which he had had inherited from his father, who was a descendant of the Romanov family.

Sark's mind ran with ideas of what he could do with eight hundred million dollars, but the money was very shortly lived in his pocket. Ever since finding out what he was worth, Sark wanted more than simply being an agent for the Covenant. He wanted to be the head and be in charge of his own eight hundred million.

As soon as he had the perfect opportunity to possibly make this aspiration come true, he took it.

He had managed to come into contact with Irina Derevko. Before his mission to kidnap April Winthers went into action, he had an odd email in his inbox. He immediately recognized the dismembered syntax of the subject and read it. She wanted him for a mission. Sark still doesn't know what it is, but he took the opportunity for what it was worth and decided to tell Irina what his current mission for the Covenant and for whatever reason, she was interested. She wanted to be a part of it. There must be some specific reason for why the Covenant and Irina Derevko wanted April Winthers. There had to be some meaning for her kidnapping.

Even by the way the Covenant had described the mission to him it had seemed sketchy and more than the typical kidnap-ransom routine that Sark had seen too many times before.

McKenas Cole had contacted Sark himself. It wasn't some messenger giving him a folder with the operation specs in it, but it had been a set up meet. Cole's lack of people skills always got Sark a little disheveled. He hated his raspy voice and the crazy look that was in his eyes all the time.

"Mr. Sark it is a pleasure to meet with you tonight in this club full of the beautiful people of Peru," Cole said using his arm to show off an obvious whore of his. Sark, in his mind, smirked, knowing that there was no way that woman was sleeping with Cole for his looks or personality.

"Mr. Cole, I do not know if you realize this, but both of our lives are in jeopardy every single moment you try to bring up the pretenses of us being friendly colleagues. I assure you that we both do not perceive that as the status of our relationship and therefore we should just proceed with your original objective of setting this meet up," Sark said coldly.

"Wow, wow, no need to get all defensive, Mr. Sark," Cole responded, making abstract gestures with his hands and crossing his legs uncomfortably as a sign of wanting to protect himself from anymore of Sark's unruly comments.

"Mr. Cole what was the exact reason for calling this meeting?" Sark asked, leaning back in his chair.

"This is straight forward mission and I expected it completed it in a matter of days." Cole slid a manila folder across the table.

Sark quickly flipped the folder open and saw a picture of a young woman. His immediate thoughts were of the bedroom, but he compartmentalized his desires and turned his focus back to the mission. He was always able to do that: put his mission, before his own wants.

"What exactly is the purpose of this? Kidnap a young woman for some poignant revenge?" Sark shrugged.

"Something like that. The details are in the dossier. The best opportunity for the kidnapping will be two days from now in Gibraltar, Spain at one of her parents' annual black and white balls. God how much I hate rich people."

Sark inwardly scoffed at his comment. "Are we done here?" He rose out of his chair, with his body facing the exit, and glanced back at McKenas who was looked up at him.

"Yes we are."

Sark walked out of the club going over his conversation with Cole in his head over and over again. He immediately felt that Cole was hiding something. The Covenant was hiding something.

And Sark walking down a street, which Sark had no idea what exactly its name was, with April, was still determined to figure out what that was.

His first thought was Rambaldi. Everything the Covenant seemed to strife after was Rambaldi. April had to have something to do with Rambaldi. Maybe it could be her parents or something. With his arm around her shoulder, Sark looked through the edge of his sunglasses to take a glance at April.

She looked so innocent and pure. He suspected that she probably never had a real boyfriend or actually ever experienced anything. From the material he read about her she had a soft spot for humanity interests, which was expressed in her choice of the university that she attended. South Africa is definitely not a major tourist destination, but April spent three years of college there. Her schedule mostly consisted of volunteer work outside of her daily requirements for school. She spent her time with children suffering from AIDS. _There is no way April could possibly have something to do with the hunt for Rambaldi. It just does not make sense._

_She is so beautiful. What I wouldn't give for us not to be in this situation. Sometimes being a spy has its downfalls. Julian, stop thinking about her. You know that making hypothetical situations will destroy your focus. _Deep breathe. _Okay, I can't take it anymore._

Julian pulled her off the sidewalk and placed her against a stonewall of a cafe on the street. People were still walking by them; staring at the compromising position Julian had put them in.

April dropped the shopping bags she had been carrying. Julian had one of her hands inter-wined with his and the other was merely dangling unsure of how to respond with the way he was holding her.

He leaned in to kiss her.

April closed her eyes and whispered, "I've never done this before."

Julian brought his hand to her face and caressed her cheek. April shivered. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

He kissed her. Her mouth parted to accept his. It felt right to April, but the situation that this was happening in was wrong. The man in the world that she was suppose to have feelings for is not a kidnapper. He couldn't be. She is supposed to fall in love with a man that was a doctor or something. Someone who wants to save the world, not destroy it.

* * *

Thanks everyone for all the reviews. I hope you all are enjoying it. Review if you have any suggestions or comments. I am always open to any suggestions. Thanks!


	10. Chapter 10

April breathed heavily against the wall. Julian had walked away from her. He now was walking ahead of her. Seemingly unaffected by what had just happened between them. It was hard for her to regain composure. The wind was knocked out of her. _Okay, April, just act like it didn't happen. I mean that is what he is doing right? He doesn't even want to talk about what happened. Most likely he figures I won't go past the whole kissing phase. How does he know that I would not do something beyond kissing? I've gone farther than that._

_Oh, who am I kidding? Julian is experienced. He has probably been with more women than he can count on both of his hands, probably times four, but hell, who cares? Nothing happened. Nothing. At least that is how I have to act._

Taking a deep breath, April picked up the shopping bags that she had dropped earlier, smoothed out the light blue sundress dress Julian had picked out for her and began walking. Julian was still a good three paces in front of her. She pretended to be entranced by the display in the window of a Prada boutique. In a normal state of mind, she would have completely disregarded the extravagance of spending $100 dollars on a tank top, but right now she had to be Annie Marquette. And according to the persona of Annie Marquette, Annie Marquette liked this kind of stuff.

"Annie, what you doing?" Without noticing, Julian had come back and was now looking over her shoulder. April was a little shocked by his sudden appearance.

She shivered slightly. Now she was beginning to become uncomfortable. "Nothing, just looking."

"Well, love, we need to get going if we are going to get back to the hotel before our flight leaves," he said, with almost a slight undertone of iritance in his voice. He didn't like how she was pointlessly looking in a window display. That type of wastefulness annoyed him.

"Okay," she said, succumbing to his suggestion that she knew did not take on the full meaning of what a suggestion is.

* * *

Four hours later Julian and April landed at Heathrow Airport in London. April did not know exactly why London was chosen as their destination. She understood that the masquerade they had been playing had placed the fictional couple of Andrew and Annie Marquette in London, but there are a million of obscure places in the world that the Covenant could possibly never find them in. But for some particular reason they were in London.

April had been to London numerous times before. Once a month her boarding school, that she attended from when she was ten to eighteen, had a field trip to the city. She liked London. Perhaps the one thing that she didn't like was the weather. It was always overcast and clouds were always in the sky. April definitely preferred sunny weather, but the city of London was still one of her favorite places in the world.

Julian had hailed a taxicab to take them to what she supposed would be a residence of his. When she stepped onto the sidewalk in front of the flat that Julian owned, memories came flooding back to her: times of when she was in school and when her father would make a special visit to London to coincide with her school field trip. So many memories that now would be tainted now because her new residence with her kidnapper was here.

"April! Wake up!" Sark was waving his hand in front of her face trying to get her out of a daze that she was in.

"What?" April said absentmindedly.

"Come on," he ushered.

"I'm coming. I'm coming." She hated when people rushed her. Now she would take her merry old time going through the entrance to the building.

As April stepped inside, she realized why Julian Sark liked this place and had taken her here. What she thought would be just an apartment, was an entire residence, like a townhouse. From what she could see, she thought that there were three floors. There were stairs immediately to her right as she entered the house. Then straight ahead there looked to be a kitchen, but before April had a chance to investigate, Julian was holding her by the arm.

"What are you doing that for?" April commented to his holding of her arm.

"I'm taking you to where you will be staying for a short time."

"Another room which should be referred as a holding cell," she said as he directed her up towards the stairs.

"If you want to put a pessimistic spin on it, then you can call it that."

"Great," April muttered under her breath.

They reached the second floor and Julian pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door of the second room that April saw. _I bet this room can only be locked from the outside_, April thought.

"The answer to the question that you are thinking right now is yes. This room can only be opened from the outside." Sark could not help but saying that. He knew that that was what she was thinking.

"Actually it was more of a conjecture than a question in my head." April wanted to smack herself for saying that. She could not let him have the last word.

Sark inwardly laughed at her attempt to try and make herself seem less intimidated by the situation.

The door opened and revealed a room beautifully decorated and April stipulated that he did not design this room. The room was what in her heart April would call a dream bedroom. The walls were light blue and the bed had a white bedspread and the rest of the furnishings were white also: nightstand, dresser, closet. If this room had different circumstances surrounding it, April would have loved it. But considering what was happening right now, she loathed it.

"Do you like it?" Sark asked sarcastically.

"No," April said plainly.

"Well, you have no other place to stay so this will have to do." He hated the way she was acting. She definitely was beginning to get on his nerves. It was almost as annoying as the way she was on the plane, giving him the silent treatment.

"Actually I do have another place to stay," April retorted, putting her head to one side with her arms crossed, across her chest.

"Really and where could that be?"

"Where do you think? Home, where my parents are. The people that you kidnapped me from!"

"Don't do this April," Julian said calmly.

"Do what? Start to have a mental breakdown? Because I am this close to going haywire and you can't do anything about it. Actually you can. You can stop this whole kidnapping me thing and just bring me back to my parents!" April said, losing her breath. April was melting. Melting into a mess. She hated the feeling that she had no control.

"April..."

She cut him off, "Stop right there! Do not try to calm me down. I can't take this anymore. I want to go home. I just want to go home," April pleaded. The last sentence trailed and was muffled because of the tears that April was starting to shed.

Being insensitive, Sark persisted with what he was going to say, "April what home? You spend nine months out of the year at a college in South Africa and you only see your parents once during that time period. Then you spend your summer jet setting around the world to exotic places with you mother and father, who you hardly see during that time period, because they are busy with their own lives."

"Oh no. Don't start criticizing the only family I have. Look in mirror sweetie. You destroy people's lives for a living! You seem like you have no emotional attachments or any care to, as evidence of earlier today." April wiped her tears away from her face.

"Is that what this is about? What happened earlier when I kissed you?"

"Don't turn this around. You know very well what this is about."

"Yes," Sark was beginning to put his cool exterior on again. He was starting to cover up the way he felt. "It is about me kissing you."

"Well you obviously seem to want to talk about that, so lets. What the hell was that you pulled today? Do you want to mess with me even more than you already are? Do you want to confuse me beyond anything that is humanly possible?"

"Oh sure. I just want to complicate the situation, is that it?"

"Yes you do. You thrive off of inflicting pain on other people. You can't seem to get enough of it. All you want to do is drive me crazy!"

Her thoughts were getting to him. He didn't want her to think that the point behind kissing her was to make her mad or confused. "No. I only wanted to see what it was like to kiss you," Julian said simply. That what it was: simple, nothing more, nothing less. All he wanted to do was see what it was like kissing her.

April took a deep breath at this new revelation. Breathlessly, she mustered to say, "You only wanted to kiss me?"

"Yes. I can't hold myself back anymore."

Before April had a chance to respond, his mouth was on hers again. Continuing only what they had started earlier.


	11. Chapter 11

"Julian what are we doing?" April asked the man that she had experienced her first real kiss with. Never had she been kissed like that before. It was just perfect. She didn't have a lot to judge it by, but she decided that it was perfect.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you kidnapped me," April was having trouble articulating the words in her mind that described the situation, "and then you are kissing me."

"Yes."

"It's a little bizarre don't you think? I mean it's like our relationship has done a complete 180. I should be asking questions about what your intentions with me are. I have a right to," April said reassuring herself. Julian was giving her vague answers that were confusing the hell out of her. She wanted answers, straight answers.

"You do have a right to. But as of right now I do not know my own intentions with you."

"Oh, okay."

The thought had never really occurred to her that maybe this was new to him to. It's not like she expected him to make their relationship more confusing than it already is. She simply expected him to have a plan. This time he didn't.

"I am not going to do anything without your consent." He got up off the bed and walked out of the door.

God, he makes me sound like a business deal. I can't believe I am even considering having a relationship with Julian. I've never even had a real boyfriend. There was Tommy in first grade, but that doesn't count.

* * *

_She is driving me insane. She wants answers that I can't give her. I don't know what I want with her. Why did the Covenant have to give this assignment? It's because I am probably the only good looking male on their payroll. _

_Actually it should be my payroll. I am financing this organization that I despise. They are going to kill me if they find me and if they find me, they will find April and they will kill her too, unless they want her for something. I still have no idea what it is. What could they want with her? I've gone through all the possibilities and the only one that makes any illogical sense is Rambaldi, but what does April have to do with Rambaldi?_

_I need to contact Irina. She is the only one that could know what the Covenant would want with April. _

"Irina?" Sark asked to the opposite end of the line. He wasn't exactly looking forward to the conservation that was going to take place between the two of them. Ever since the CIA had had him in custody, his game had been down, as evidence of his current predicament.

"Sark. I was wondering when you would call me. You weren't at my apartment in Madrid," the woman answered. Her voice was smooth, giving away nothing.

"There were a few complications."

"As I expected," Irina thought aloud. She wanted Sark to her it.

He dismissed the obvious referral to his mistakes. "I'm in London with Miss Winthers, at my home."

"I will be there in two hours." She hung up the phone before Sark had a chance to respond. 

_This is wonderful_, Sark thought sarcastically to himself. Once Irina arrived he had a feeling he would be getting some type of answer to the reason why the Covenant wanted April Winthers. He had no idea what to expect.

* * *

A knock came to April's bedroom slash cell door. April got up off the bed that she was laying on. It was the first time that she had had a chance to rest for more than an hour straight since her ordeal had started. It was ten o'clock at night and April was hoping to get some shut-eye, but to her it seemed that Sark had wanted to disturb her moment of peace once again.

She opened the door and started asking, "Sark, what do you want? It's ten o'clock and I really want to get some sleep..." before she had a chance to throw some profanities into her rant, she noticed that Sark was not at her bedroom door alone.

"Who are you?" April demanded of the woman who was standing next to Sark. She looked slightly familiar, but she didn't know why.

"April, this is Irina Derevko," Sark said, not allowing Irina to say anything.

"Oh," April responded plainly. The name did not hold any meaning to her. She had never heard it before. She inspected the woman and figured that she was probably in her early fifties. Not too old, but not too young either. Her hair was pulled out of her face to reveal defining bone structure that gave Irina's face stark characteristics. Her eyes though were the characteristic that April most attracted her to Irina's person. They appeared to have loneliness in them.

Irina noticed the attention April was giving her. Only liking attention when she was manipulating it, Irina decided to make this interaction have a point, "April I am hear to talk to you about some things," Irina said.

To April this woman was talking down to her and she didn't like that. Her mother had done it constantly and it was one of the reasons why April never really got along with her. Her mom seemed to always treat her like a child. Patricia never was able to grasp the concept that April was responsible and could take care of herself. April probably could bet that if it were not for her father, April would have never been able to go boarding school.

"And what exactly do we have to talk about? I don't know you," April said defiantly.

A smile came to Irina's face. _Exactly like her mother_, she thought. "Well I know you." Irina stepped inside the bedroom. Sark remained outside, observing the way the two women interacted and played off of each other.

April felt like this woman was invading her territory, not just the way she was stepping inside of the room that Sark had allowed her to occupy, but that Irina knew who April was. "How?"

"You should sit down."

Irina sounded serious and April followed her suggestion. The way Irina was talking April had a feeling this had something to do with her kidnapping. After April sat down on the bed Irina sat down next to her.

"Have you ever heard of Petra Derevko?" Irina was starting from base one.

"No, but the last name is yours correct?"

"Yes, exactly. Petra is my sister. About twenty-four years ago, the KGB recruited her. They wanted her to be a spy. Her alias was Patricia Keating."

Before Irina had a chance to finish her story, April stood up and said, "My mother's maiden name is Keating."

"Yes."

"What was her mission?" April asked, not fully interested in the answer, because she thought she already knew what is was.

"Her mission was to marry Harry Winthers." 


	12. Chapter 12

Sark looked at April. She appeared to be taking it well. Learning that your mother is a Russian spy, is not that easy of a thing to handle, but Sark could tell that April was masking the way she really felt. Maybe she wanted to put up a front and pretend like this wasn't bothering her. Although he didn't think that this was a typical way for April to act. Over the past couple of days he had come up with his own evaluation of April's character and he had figured her a person who would display her emotions more openly, definitely not someone who would compartmentalize.

April turned away to look at Sark, not looking in the eyes of a newly discovered aunt. "Did you know this?"

"No, I'm afraid I did not," he replied, looking directly at April. He too, avoided the eyes of Irina Derevko.

April sighed. She honestly did not know how to deal with this. Maybe it was because she had a feeling that her mother never really loved her father or that something had always seemed off in her life. She didn't know how to put her head around the prospect that her life was manufactured by someone she had never even met.

Silence had spread over the room. No one spoke. There seemed to be some type of understanding between the souls of the room that the first person to talk should be April, because she had just been introduced to the tangled world of lies and deceit that Irina Derevko and Julian Sark knew all too well.

* * *

"Dad," Sydney Bristow said getting her father's attention, as he just finished up signing some governmental documents.

"What is it Sydney?" he responded with his usual cool tone, but heightened alertness now that he was speaking to his daughter.

"Do we have any leads on April and Sark yet?"

"No, but we did confirm that it was Sark involved in the shooting on the Madrid highway. We managed to get traffic camera images from the nearest turnoff exit of the highway."

"Well that's something," Sydney sighed, disappointed. She was beginning to get anxious. She needed some destination in mind that would lead her to April and Sark.

Jack rubbed his daughter's shoulder, "We'll find her, Sydney. I know you are worried about her. Being in the hands of a terrorist is not something I wish upon anyone, but April is a Derevko and I do not put it by her that she cannot handle herself."

Sydney looked down at the rotunda floor specked with white and was hoping that April was okay. She knew Sark's capabilities and even if April is a Derevko, there are many chances that she might not be able to handle Sark. "I don't want April to get hurt."

"No one does."

* * *

The silence of the room was beginning to get to April once she thought that she was getting a handle on things. "Okay, my question is: Irina, do you know exactly why the Covenant wants me?"

"According to my contacts no. The little that I have heard consists of the mere plot that the Covenant wants you for some reason."

"Great, so no one in this room, or any of the people that either of you know, have any idea what this mastermind evil organization wants with me. This is so frustrating. Why do I have to be thrown into all of this? I do not know anything. You could search my mind for hours and you would not find anything, only things of little concern that would in no way shape or form would help me in my dilemma." This speech was nothing more than April's thoughts told aloud to the rest of the people present in the room.

Interrupting no conversation within April's quarters, a telephone rang. Sark easily reached into his pocket, pressed a button, stepped outside of the room and began talking to someone in a language that April had no idea what to decipher as.

Leaving April and Irina alone, Sark had allowed some room for a heart to heart between the two of them.

"April," Irina said taking April's hand into her own. "These things take time. Julian and I will find out why the Covenant wants you and we will put a stop to it."

April sighed. She wanted her aunt to be right. She wanted to know why the Covenant wanted her. She just didn't have the patience that time called for. April wanted to go home, but she didn't know if she had a home to go to. The home she had known for her better twenty-one years of her life was a lie, a fake. It didn't exist. All April could say was, "Thanks."

Irina stood up off the bed and walked out the door. Irina couldn't say anything. She knew that April's world had fallen apart. Nothing she had known would ever be the same as it once was. Seeing April's face, made Irina wonder about what Sydney looked like when the same thing had happened to her. From first hearing about April Winthers, Irina knew that she would not be easy to coerce into the espionage world. April would fight it. April would fight anything that'd threaten her. There is that definite potential in April Winthers to bring down anyone that stood against her.

* * *

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. But I hope you all liked the new one. Let me know! Thanks!


	13. Chapter 13

Sark sat at his desk, looking over paperwork, or something that he would more preferably call as busy work. It was nothing more than a way for him to distract himself from the current situation at hand. All he wanted to do was push April Winthers from his mind and get back to the usual of killing people and getting some Rambaldi artifact before the wonderful, beautiful Agent Sydney Bristow does. Why couldn't life be simple sometimes?

Something about Irina Derevko being April's aunt unnerved him. He didn't like the way that Irina seemed to know everything and only gave him answers when it was necessary. Maybe for once in his life he did not want to be left out of something. He was left out of his father's life, a normal childhood, and even a normal adulthood. Honestly, who runs around the world on a daily basis just to serve some organization that has been screwing you over for the past six months? No one.

At some point in his life he wanted control. He thought he had that with his non existent love life, except for the occasional, meaningless shag here and there, but now that April was in the picture, that did not seem possible. Everything revolved around her now. He seemed to be consumed by her. His professional and personal life was now surrounding her. He did not want that. But who said that it is about want?

This whole thought process took place in Sark's mind for about five minutes, before Irina Derevko walked into his study, without knocking either.

"How's Miss Winthers?" he asked, trying to break the ice that was in the air. He had not seen this woman for two and half years and for some reason, he had no idea of how to handle the situation in front of him.

"Julian, don't hold up pretenses," Irina commanded of him. It was like she was scolding a five year old for stealing a cookie out of the cookie jar.

Sark did not respond, waiting to see for where Irina was going with this.

"Your feelings for my niece are obvious. If I had to guess, I think you are vicariously living your fantasy of being with my daughter."

Again he did not say anything. This time he was too shocked to come up with a retort, so he just stayed seated at his desk, while Irina was staring at some painting he had on his wall.

"Everything comes back to Sydney. Everything. I have learned that in the past thirty years. It always comes back to my daughter."

The two figures in the room were still not looking at each other. Neither of them could take it. Well, perhaps Irina more than Sark.

"I did not exactly say the whole truth when we were in April's bedroom. I know a little more than I led on."

"I figured," Sark muttered under his breath. The phone call that had taken him away from April's "cell" was one from his primary contact for the exact reason of why the Covenant wanted April and he had found nothing yet.

Irina disregarded his disdain for authority and continued, "My contact, within the Covenant, informed me of a plan that the Covenant has constructed regarding my niece. I do not know the full details."

For the first time, Sark looked at Irina wanting to more of what she was going to say. In response for his decency to look her in the eye, Irina decided to tell him what she knew.

"Apparently there is another Rambaldi cube that contains his DNA that the Covenant has acquired. Because of their lack of the woman in Page 47's eggs, they believe that if they use someone who is genetically similar that the same end came be met-"

Sark cut her off seeing where she was going with this, "Machiavelli's 'the ends justify the means'," he scoffed, "How fitting." He got out from behind his desk and walked to the front of the table.

"Exactly. They believe April is the means."

"Won't that mess something up though? Don't they need the actual Sydney to make this prophecy come true?"

"Yes, but they don't know that. They think that April can replace Sydney, but from my research, April is meant for a different part of the prophecy. The woman on Page 47 is merely a vessel for Rambaldi's child, not his or her upbringing. A person, genetically similar to the woman on page 47 a.k.a. similar anomalies and not seeing the top of the mountain, is supposed to raise this child," Irina explained, with the air of scholar, which in essence in needed to be classified for her respect to Rambaldi that is what she is.

Sark placed his hand underneath his chin in effort to understand what he was hearing. "So the point of April is to raise the product of Sydney and Rambaldi?" Irina nodded. "But the Covenant thinks that they can use her as the vessel instead?" Irina nodded again. "Okay, we know why the Covenant wants her now and exactly how that is wrong, but how do we keep her from getting in their grasps? I am not handing her over to the Covenant. It is too risky."

Irina smiled inwardly as she saw Sark display his concern for her niece. She had not seen him display this type of concern since, well since ever. With Allison Doren, there was hardly ever a concern because everyone believed she could take care of herself, which didn't work out, but still. He cared for April.

"My plan is to hand her over to the CIA." Sark was beginning to protest, but she gave him a look that told him to shut up before he said anything else. "It is the only way to fully protect her. They will place her in a safe house with Sydney to watch and care for her. When need be, we can extract April."

Even though he did not want to admit it, he knew that she was right. This was the only way to protect her. The CIA had legal, reliable resources, even if they were easy to access, but it was almost always impossible to impenetrate with Jack Bristow on payroll. Sark had been able to do it, but it was because he had Irina or the Covenant. Now that Irina was in hiding and the Covenant's loss of Lauren Reed, there was hardly a viable way for anyone to get a hold on April. Plus, as Irina said, if it was reasonable, feasible and possible he knew that both of them together could pull together the resources to extract April.

"Alright," he shook his head in silent protest, but gave in. He had too.


	14. Chapter 14

He was watching her. Watching April sleeping. Well she wasn't exactly sleeping, but knocked out more or less. But she looked so peaceful, like she was dreaming of something pleasant. How different that was from his dreams.

The faces of the people he had killed over his life haunted Julian Sark's subconscious state. True, some of them deserved it, or were in the spy world themselves and had placed themselves in the situation that could get them killed. However, there was a good majority that didn't. Like the church that Sloane had ordered him to plant that horrible Rambaldi bomb and kill those people inside of the church, who were merely there to worship something good and pure. Sark himself knew that it wasn't right, but he still did it. He was following orders. It was what he always had done.

It was what he was doing now. Following Irina's orders of handing April over to the CIA. Julian was doing it for April's protection. That's what he wanted. He wanted to protect her.

His feelings were selfish. First he didn't want to hand her over to the Covenant. Second he didn't want to hand her over to the CIA either. There he was, stuck in limbo. In front of Irina though, he could not let his emotions get the best of him. He could not show them.

So he watched her. He wished he were able to sort out all of his feelings and be able to compartmentalize what he was feeling. However it wasn't working. He wanted to talk to her.

He shook her petite body lightly. "April, wake up," Sark whispered in her ear.

"What?" April looked up and saw his face. "Julian, why do I feel like I've been sleeping for my whole life?"

"The drugs worked good," he said underneath his breath, but knew very well that April had heard what he had just said.

"You drugged me! Of all the insidious things to do!" She sat up in the leather couch in protest. Her body was still telling her to sleep for the rest of her life. Suddenly April became aware of her surroundings. "Are we on a plane?" she questioned.

"Yes."

"You are just full of explanations aren't you?"

He smiled, "Yes."

"Ahh, you are so frustrating," she exclaimed. She sighed, "Where are we off to now? Switzerland?"

"Not exactly. Currently we are flying over Texas. Although Switzerland would be an ideal place to go to, considering it is the only modern country without a warrant for my arrest"

"I am so proud of you, Julian. For the first time you are actually explaining something to me," she said sarcastically.

"Thank you," he replied. He enjoyed this banter between the two of them. "April, we need to talk."

She scoffed, "How many times have I heard that."

"No really. I am not joking."

April saw the look on his face. His blue irises were focused and determined. They were very much intent on completely the task that Julian had set out to do. "Sure, we can talk."

"Now about," he paused, "us, I don't know what you are expecting but I am not exactly what one would call a relationship person. I tend to be free of any emotional restraints. So-"

April cut him off, "So what you are saying is that nothing could work between us? There is no possibility that there could be anything. That we need to remain in the relationship that had started everything: you, the kidnapper and me, the victim. Right?"

"As much as I wish that that did not have to be the case, it has to be." April looked away from him. "April-"

She cut him off again, "I know it's not me it's you. I've heard it all before. Believe me more times than you can count. Now I hate to be rude, but I am extremely tired and since I have no idea what is to happen in the next few days, I figure that I should try to get as much sleep as possible." She lied back down on the tan leather couch and closed her eyes, attempting to push all this from her mind and have slumber come over.

Why did she have to do that? Know what he was going to say before he said it. It infuriated him.

He got up from his seat and walked towards the front of the plane. He knew that Irina was sitting in one of the luxurious passenger lounge chairs with her back to his latest interaction with April. Despite what he wished, he knew very well that Irina had heard every word that he and April had just said. Couldn't his life be simple for once?

Reaching for the decanter that was placed on a table, he filled a clear glass, seated next to the alcohol container, with the brown liquid. Despite what most people thought, he much preferred straight liquor opposed to a glass of wine.

"You should sedate her. She's not going to be able to sleep for the rest of the plane ride or sleep through the transfer," Irina said, not looking up from her laptop that she was typing on.

Julian took a long sip of the alcohol before addressing Irina. "Why don't you do it, if you are so concerned for her well being?" he replied bitterly. She was the one making him give her up.

"Fine," the elder woman stood up, but before doing what she wanted done she said softly, "Julian you know very well what happens when you mix business with pleasure. All I'm saying is don't be selfish." The indignant man rolled his eyes in response as Derevko walked off.

Irina kneeled down to her niece's eye level and woke April up.

"What?" April replied annoyed because people keep interrupting her peaceful sleeping sessions.

Her aunt reached for a box on the armrest of the chair directly across from the couch that had April's body sprawled across on it. April groggily watched her aunt open the box and pull out a long needle. Even though the young woman was deathly afraid of needles she was too tired to protest.

"This will help you sleep," was all Irina said, and then she injected the sedative into April's bare arm.

Right before the substance hit April's bloodstream Irina said, "This will all be over soon."

April wanted to know what Irina was talking about, but before she had a chance to question her, a black sheet covered her eyes.


	15. Chapter 15

Hey everyone! I just wanted to say thanks for everyone that has read and reviewed so far. You all have been extremely encouraging and I am so sorry for the lack of updates. I had a lot of computer issues and luckily I got a new one over Christmas and so I am now able to update more often! Here's the next chapter and Happy New Year everybody!

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"Director Dixon!" a security man ran across the Rotunda floor to the Director's office.

"What is it Agent Hund?" the director asked in an urgent manner. It was not an average day if the security head was running into his office asking to speak to him.

Agent Hund took a deep breath. "There is an unidentifiable vehicle in the parking lot."

"Get the guards down there. We need to figure out if this is a viable threat or not. I'll be on Communicator 4." The security head exited the director's office hastily to execute the order just given to him.

Marcus Dixon placed the headset on his head and pressed the four on a keypad on his desk. Since September 11th, security surrounding government buildings had to be heightened.

"Dixon I heard what's going on. What line are we on?" Jack Bristow stepped into his boss's office.

"Four," Dixon answered.

Jack took over the operation in a silent manner. Both of the experienced men in the room knew that Jack Bristow was better at handling these types of situations.

"What does the vehicle look like?" Bristow asked.

Agent Hund inspected the black car. "Sir it is a black Mercedes-Benz sedan."

"Is there anyone inside?"

The windows of the car were tinted completely black. "The windows are black, I need to open the door."

The director asked, "Does it look safe?" When Jack was concentrating on figuring out what was in the car, Dixon looked out for his agents' safety.

"There appear to be no alterations to the vehicle."

Dixon and Jack looked at each other. There was an understanding between the two of them. Dixon said, "Proceed."

The security head opened the black driver side door of the vehicle. There was no one seated in the driver's seat or the front passenger's seat. He noticed a body in the back seat. It was a young woman and she appeared to be sleeping.

"Sir, there is a young woman in the back seat," the security team reported.

Both men inside of the Rotunda looked at each other quizzically. They were shocked. "Is she armed?" Dixon asked.

"No sir, she appears to be sleeping."

Before Dixon and Jack were able to investigate any further, Marshall came into Director Dixon's office, "Sir I just received an encrypted email, but I was able to decipher it." Marshall didn't say what it said.

Jack gave him an irritated look and asked impatiently, "Well what did it say Marshall?"

"It said that a black Mercedes is in the parking lot and that the person inside is April Winthers," Marshall said with an apprehensive look on his face. Everyone at the Joint Task Force were aware of the Winthers case and how important it could possibly be in capturing Mr. Sark or any operatives of the Covenant.

"Agent Hund extract Miss Winthers," Jack ordered.

Within minutes April Winthers was in CIA custody.

-----------------

Wafts of hospital smell hit April's nose. Her eyes slowly opened and she took in her surroundings. She was in a hospital bed with wires attached to her. An IV, or what she thought was an IV, was connected to her bloodstream. She sat up in her hospital bed and saw her father sleeping in a chair to her right. For the first time in the past 54 hours, April took a deep breath.

She watched her dad for a few minutes. He looked, as much as she didn't want to say it, like hell. April had seen her father tired from work, but she had never seen him look like his whole world had fallen apart. If she was guessing, it had, just like hers. Harry had found out about Mom. April collapsed her head on the pillow. She didn't want her dad to find out about that. If she could have prevented it she would have. She did not know why, but she wanted to protect him from the spy world. _Just like Julian wanted to protect me. But wait, he just wanted to protect me from the Covenant._ Why did this all have to be so confusing?

Right now all April wanted was for her father to hold her, "Daddy…" she whispered.

He stirred a little bit, but then Harry thought that he heard his only daughter's voice and opened his eyes. "Sweetheart, April. Are you awake?"

"Yes I am," April had to fight back tears. Of course a little less than three days was not the longest time the father and daughter had been apart, but this was the most strenuous time that they had been apart.

"How are you?" Harry grabbed his daughter's hand and held it. He wanted to make sure that she was really here.

"I'm okay," she smiled weakly. She hated to admit it, but she was tired. She wanted to go home and curl up in her warm, plush bed.

"I was so worried about you. Your mother and I-" he caught himself. "I'm sorry April, but your mother-"

The pains on her father's face, at his own mention of his wife and her mother had resulted in April interrupting what he was going to say, "Dad, I know."

"You know about what she did?"

"Yes. Are you alright with everything?" April asked concerned. It was obvious to her that her mother's betrayal had more effect on her father than it had on her.

"I'm coming to terms with it. It's hard learning that your wife of over twenty years was a spy for Russian Intelligence. I guess it makes sense though." At the last part, Harry couldn't look at his daughter. He knew that part of the reason why Patricia, no Petra had betrayed all of them was because of his business.

"How does it make sense, Dad? I mean she lied to us, to all of us. She pretended to be someone that she wasn't. There is no way that that makes sense." April had trouble fathoming that her father was blaming this all on himself. "You can't blame this on yourself. It wasn't your fault."

Under his breath, he muttered, "Yes it is."

"What?"

Harry knew that he couldn't keep this from his daughter forever. "It is my fault."

"No." April in no way could understand how her father was pining this on himself.

"April, what I do for a living is not what one would call entirely legal," Harry stated bluntly.

"Dad, you make safes for a living. How is that not entirely legal?" April asked. There was no possible way that the man sitting in front of her was not honest. He always had been with her.

Being under the scrutiny of April Winthers, was extremely tough for the elder man, even if it was his own daughter. He couldn't look in her eyes anymore. His body rose out of the uncomfortable chair he had been sitting in for the past four hours and he walked towards the window of the hospital room. "Let's just say that some of the people I made security systems for did not make the most honest livings."

"But everything you did was legal, right?" April hoped to God that her father was not in the spy world, like he was implying to be.

He turned back to his daughter, "Of course it was. I never did anything that was not legal. It's just that in order to be at the top of my industry I needed to take on clients that may have been considered enemies of the state. And if they were, I only found out through back channels, because most of my clients used aliases. Probably most of them were so good that I had no idea that they were enemies." Harry was glad that he could be honest with his daughter. The worst thing would have been if his daughter had both parents that were criminals and he always made promised himself that in no way would he put his daughter in danger.

April sighed in relief. She didn't know what she would do if both of her parents were criminals. "Good. You have nothing to worry about. Dad I totally see that his whole thing was not your fault. Me, being kidnapped is just a small little bump in the road. I'm sure that this will all be over soon."

"I don't think that is entirely true.' April looked at her father in disbelief.

"What do you mean?"

"The CIA still thinks that the Covenant or this Sark guy is still after you. You are not out of the woods yet, April."

"Great. Just when I thought that this would be over because I see you sitting there and Irina said earlier that this would all be over soon I had my hopes."

Suddenly a woman that looked to be about five or eight years older than her walked through the door of April's room.

"Hi April. My name is Sydney Bristow and I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions."

This woman looked nice enough, but there was something vaguely familiar about her. April just nodded.

"Good. So how are you feeling?"

"I'm okay. There's no harm."

"Mr. Winthers, my father would like to speak to you," Sydney said. She never took her eyes off of April, while she was getting rid of the elder man. She wanted time alone with April. There was a very slim chance that Sydney would be able to get April's whole kidnapping story with her father in the room.

Harry opened the door and replied, "Okay. I'll go talk to him," and Harry left the hospital room. Frankly, he did not want to answer any more questions from his daughter. He wanted to get out of there. Plus, he knew that the nice young lady was trying to get rid of him.

Sydney took the chair that Mr. Winthers had previously occupied and sat down. "The doctor said that you are perfectly alright and that there was no physical damage done to you, except for the sedative that was injected into your bloodstream."

"Yeah," was all April responded with.

Sydney could tell that April might not be the most cooperative person, but then again Sydney realized that if she were in the same situation she would probably act like that too. She would be cooperative, but not perhaps to the fullest extent.

"April I understand that you might not want to go through all of the questions that I am going to ask you, but your kidnapping was not typical and national security is at stake, so I need you to be honest with me."

The young woman in the hospital bed looked at Sydney and said, "I understand. Ask me anything."

"Okay. Surveillance that we recovered in Madrid identified the man that kidnapped you to be Julian Sark. Did you have any extensive contact with this man?"

"Yeah. I spent most of the last two days with him."

"What exactly happened? You can take your time, but if you can I would like you to start from the beginning." Sydney had a concerned look on her face. Most likely re-living two days with Julian Sark would not be a pleasant experience.

April took a deep breath, "Well, it all started at my dad's party. He asked me to dance and we did. Before I knew it, he asked if we could go outside and we did and then before I knew it I woke up in this bed in the morning and then I was told that I was in Madrid. Julian came in and talked to me and started talking about this organization called the Covenant-"

"What did he say about the Covenant?"

This Sydney person was obviously interested about the Covenant. April herself had hardly any idea what the Covenant wanted, but she figured that Sydney deserved the benefit of the doubt, so April said all she knew. "He said that they wanted me, but he didn't know why. All he said was that he didn't want to hand me over to them. I don't know," April shrugged.

"What happened after that?"

"Well he told that I had to get ready or something. I was pretty pissed off because I had no idea how I was going to get out of Madrid. I just wanted to go home. Anyway I had an opportunity, so I took it and I escaped. I went out of the window of the room and I somehow found the train station. So I found out when the next train left for Gibraltar and since I didn't have any money I thought that I could just sneak on. Well right before the train left Julian found me. I got out of his grasp, but he caught up with me."

"He didn't hurt you did he?"

"No, he just handcuffed me."

"Did he take you anywhere after that?"

"Well we were supposed to go to this club or something in Madrid. We were supposed to meet someone there. I don't know. On the way there some people in a black van followed us and there was a shooting. We got away, but Julian didn't want to leave any tracks or something. So we ended up in the shopping district in Madrid and he made me follow up a guise of being a married couple," that phrase sent shivers down Sydney's spine. She couldn't possibly fathom being married to Sark. She felt sorry for her cousin, but April for some reason it didn't seem to bother her that she had to pretend to be married to Sark. April seemed to be handling this a little too well. "After that we boarded a plane in bound to London. Once we arrived in London we ended up at his flat."

"Do you know where you were?"

"Yeah we were right outside of Trafalgar Square. I'm not sure of the exact street, but it was a stone building and there was welcome map on the front door step and there was a plant with a ceramic pot."

"Good. So what happened next?" Sydney continued questioning her. She disregarded that this might be too trying on the recent victim of Julian Sark.

"I was taken up to a room, but about a couple of hours later a woman came to meet to me. Her name was Irina Derevko. She claimed to be my aunt and told me that my mother was working for the KGB and that she was her sister. What? Did I say something?" April noticed Sydney shake a little bit at the mention of Irina.

"Irina Derevko is my mother," Sydney said plainly, but the way she said it was filled with emotion.

"So you're my cousin?" April said. Currently she was unraveling her family tree. She was discovering family members everyday that she never knew she had.

Sydney sighed, "Yes." Sydney smiled. "I'm so glad to finally meet you."

"I knew that there was something familiar about you. You look like her you know?"

"I get that a lot," Sydney said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry if that makes you mad or something. I didn't mean it in that way."

Sydney appreciated her cousin's sympathy. "What happened after you met Irina?"

"She told me that she didn't have anyway of getting me out of this mess. All she knew was that the Covenant had some type of purpose for me. Then I woke up on a plane. I was knocked out again, but Irina said that this would all be over soon. I suppose she meant that being with her and Julian that everything would be over soon. Then here I am. I don't remember anything from being on the plane to ending up here." April fully left out the semi-romantic relationship she had with Julian. She had a feeling that wouldn't go over very well with the CIA, especially since Julian was a well-known terrorist.

"Mom was wrong. I have a terrible feeling that this won't be over soon," Sydney said pessimistically.


	16. Chapter 16

Sitting in a CIA safe house, it dawned over April that her cousin, Sydney, was right. This wasn't going to be over soon. They were not going to let April go back to her life until the CIA figured out exactly why the Covenant wanted her.

According to Sydney, no one wanted the Covenant after them. Sydney had briefly explained to April the "relationship" that she has with them. The organization had held her for two years under the alias of Julia Thorne. That seemed like an interesting story, but the way Sydney told her what had happened to her, didn't entice April to pry. There was a feeling that Sydney had hardly any idea what happened to her. The look on Sydney scared April.

It was obvious to anyone that there were stark contrasts between April and Sydney. Sydney had chosen to be apart of the spy world, whereas April wanted nothing to do with it. But now, they were both entrenched it in. There never was a way out. Over the past five years Sydney had hardened. Her features became almost strained, like it took a lot out of her to smile. April was soft. She was innocent, with hardly a stain in her life, except for the ones recently discovered. But it seemed that Sydney had lost her innocence and purity. Sure she still had her morals, but if push came to shove they could be compromised. As apparent to everyone, April would never compromise what she felt. That was the endearing quality of her.

"What am I doing here?" April asked herself as she sprawled out on the bed that she had been given to rest in. She was trying to read Jane Austen's _Pride and Prejudice_ for the fourth time, but the story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy was not keeping her mind off where she was.

She was in Los Angeles. Not New York, not South Africa, but Los Angeles. It's not that she disliked Los Angeles, but she would much rather not be here under forced conditions. She wanted out, but that didn't seem to be an option. This wasn't that much different from her earlier predicament of being held, against her will (at least that what April liked to tell herself) under Julian Sark.

Sure it had not been her best experience, but nevertheless, restlessness had woken up inside of her. She couldn't stand to sit in that room anymore. There was a television and a CD player, but she didn't want to do any of those things. She needed to get out.

With her resolve, she walked out into the living room where there was Eric Weiss and Michael Vaughn playing a video game of some sort. They had not noticed that she had entered the room.

"Hey," she said softly.

At her voice, the two men turned around instantly. "Hey April, what's up? Do you need something?" Vaughn asked.

"Um, I was wondering if I could get some fresh air or something. I can't be inside anymore." April felt the walls close around her. She never thought she was claustrophobic, but after this experience she seemed to be.

Vaughn and Weiss looked at each other wearily. They were under strict order to not let her out of the house. "Let us see what we can do," Vaughn responded. He stood up off of the couch and went to the security room to check with his boss.

Eric Weiss gave April an encouraging smile. He knew that this whole thing was scary for April. "How have you been?" As soon as he said this, he wanted to retreat into a small room with no lights and have Chinese water torture performed on him.

"I've had better days, but this isn't so bad," she shrugged.

"Yeah."

"What game are you playing?" _I might as well make small talk_.

"Need for Speed Underground. It's a racing game."

"Cool," she replied simply.

"Do you want to play?" Weiss offered.

"Sure."

April sat down on the couch next to Weiss. She picked up the controller that Vaughn had been holding. It was still warm and sticky.

"Okay you are the car on the top of the screen and I am the car on the bottom of the screen. You press the square button to put the gas on and the triangle button to brake."

"Got it," April affirmed. She never had played a video game before. Having no brother or any siblings for that matter had deprived her of the electronic game industry.

"Once I press start, the race will commence," he said with a sports announcer's voice. "Now." He pressed the button.

April pressed the square button and the car on the top of the screen began to move on the streets of San Francisco. This was fun. A smile spread across her face. It was the first time in a long time that she had smiled. The vehicle weaved in and out of traffic and was beating Eric's car by at least half of a lap.

She crossed the finish line ahead of Eric's car. She liked winning. "Well, good game." She put her hand out to be shaken.

"Not yet. We're playing best out of a three. Currently you may be up by one round, but we still have two more to go and I can sweep the last two."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Okay, then let's go," April encouraged.

Vaughn walked back in the room and found that April had taken his spot on the couch and was racing Weiss in the game. He saw that she was smiling. He had not seen her do that since she was under his care. April beat Weiss. Well, that wasn't something new. For the past hour he had been kicking some serious ass against Weiss and he was happy to see that April had found the task easy herself.

Vaughn coughed in order to get Weiss and April's attention. He noticed that immediately Eric pressed the pause button. The two figures on the couch both turned around.

"Sydney and Dixon both said that it would be alright if you got to go out for two hours as long as Weiss and I were with you."

April stood up off the couch once she heard the good news. "Great, umm, where exactly would we go?"

"Well for security reasons I think we should try to stick to some place near here. We could go for a walk or something," Vaughn suggested.

"I'm more a running type of girl, do you think we could go running or something?"

"Yeah, that sounds good, how about you Weiss?"

"Sure," Weiss got up off the couch. "Vaughn and I just need change."

"Yeah, I do too." April turned and went into the bedroom that she had been given and changed into workout clothes, ready to run.

--------------

Sorry everyone for the wait. This is more of a transitional chapter, but I promise that the next chapter will be filled with action! I have finals next week, which means half days, which translates to being able to write. Thanks for all the reviews and I really appreciate your support!


	17. Chapter 17

In her younger years, April never considered running for fun to be fun. It was not enjoyable for her. But when she was eighteen she had started running. Now it was a form of escape, a way for her to concentrate her energy and put it towards good use. She loved the feeling of her body slicing through air and being able to run past people.

There had always been this feeling in her that she was behind everyone else. Like she was never up to everybody else's standards. At school she had always been separate from everyone. She never was part of a crowd. She was the girl in the corner reading and studying all the time. Her peers hardly considered her a person. She was merely a presence.

Running alongside Michael and Eric, as they let her call them, was annoying to her. She wanted to break off and get away from them. She hated being watched all the time. She was porcelain, easily breakable. This was much farther from the truth. Despite what many thought she could put up with a lot. She, after all, had lived with her mother for twenty-one years of her life.

Well, she was her mother, but that was just a charade, but in hindsight, April supposed that Patricia Winthers was her mother. April reasoned that just because Patricia Winthers was an alias, did not mean that Petra Derevko wouldn't have raised her daughter the same way.

That's another thing running was good for: to sort out her feelings. She never really had time to digest everything. In her mind, she just kept putting it off and off. She didn't want to think about it. Now she was. Maybe she was finally coming to grips with this whole thing.

Learning that your mother is a spy is hard enough for anyone to take, but learning that after being kidnapped is a whole other thing. She had been drugged twice, shot at, and held captive, by someone that April would not exactly mind being kidnapped again by. _What am I thinking? Julian first of all is a murderer and terrorist, plus he told me that nothing would ever work out between the two of us. I cannot let myself fall into what ifs. I have to put it behind me. If only the CIA would let me. They are keeping me locked up in order to ensure my "safety". I just want this to be over with. I want to know why the Covenant wants me, so I can put a stop to it and I want to get out of this. I want nothing to do spies. All I want is to finish school and live the life of a humanitarian. Is that too much to ask? My life will be devoted to making others happy. Is that bad or something? I need to stop this. I can't question everything. I have to just get through this and I then I can go back to my life, my normal life._

Sickness came over her as she heard herself say those words. _Normal Life, _that was far from what she had. She had nothing close to it. She couldn't lie to herself. It made her sick.

"Vaughn, Weiss I need to go to the bathroom," April said to them as she turned to them.

"There's one to the right of you in the park," Vaughn stopped to point and breath, "We'll stay here."

"Okay," April jogged off to the tan building she saw. It was surrounded by grass with kids playing catch, while their parents laid back and read the newspaper or a book. The sight made her more nauseous.

She opened the blue door to the bathroom and soon found herself behind an orange door, throwing up the only thing she had eaten in the past twelve hours, a cheeseburger and French fries.

After she finished, April sunk her back against the stall door. She cried. It all caught up with her, everything that had happened. Something inside of her broke. It fell apart.

Of all places, she was in a public bathroom stall, throwing up and crying. So many emotions, that she couldn't count. What was this feeling? Is this what a breakdown feels like? Is it like your entire world is just falling to pieces and you can't seem to grab a hold of anything?

_Breathe_, April told herself. _You cannot let them see you like this. No one can see you like this. Keep your head up._

The sullen woman looked up off the ground and slowly rose. She could not be weak. If she was, she couldn't show it. No one was allowed to see her like this.

Wiping the tears from her face, April let out one last whimper.

She opened the door of the bathroom stall and immediately she became weak in the knees. The wall of the bathroom held her up. But it wasn't enough she gave out. Instead of being in a private area, she was in the open. Anyone could walk through the door and see her. See her like this. For a few moments it didn't bother her.

Her hands had her face in them. If someone was in the bathroom, she couldn't look at them. They couldn't look at her.

Suddenly a pair of familiar arms wrapped around her frail body.

Then she heard his voice, "April, it's going to be alright. Just cry."

Obediently she obeyed and nuzzled herself into the space that fit her perfectly.

-------------

So sorry for the cliffhanger……….it was too tempting.


	18. Chapter 18

He was holding her. He had wanted to do this ever since he saw the disappointment on her face when he told her that they couldn't be together. What was he expecting? He knew that April was not experienced in relationships and he did not want to be her first heartbreak.

Eventually, he would hurt her. It had happened too many times before. That was something he did not want to do. He did not want to hurt her.

His hand ran through her hair and tried calming her, "April, it's going to be alright. Just cry."

He felt her move in closer. Softly, he kissed her forehead. Reassuring her, felt right. This whole thing felt right. He should be comforting her.

After a few moments April whispered, "Julian what are you doing here?"

"I came for you."

April looked up at him through tears, "Really?"

Chuckling softly he said, "Yes, is that so hard to believe?"

The corner of her mouth went up, the woman in his arms was smiling. "Just a little."

"Well, I could not very well have given up so easily. I couldn't stand it that you were gone. I had to see you again."

"Are you going to stay this time? Or just disappear again and make me stay here with the CIA?"

"You're not staying here with the CIA, I can tell you that much. Well I can't stay here, but I do plan on staying with you."

What was he saying to her? Was he saying that he wanted to be with her? "What are you saying?" she asked. April brought her head up and looked straight into his eyes.

Her eyes, they were so beautiful. As much of a romantic it would make Julian Sark sound, he could look into her eyes for the rest of eternity. "I want to be with you."

"Wow, I never thought that would come out of your mouth. I mean I wanted it to. But I never thought it would. Okay April deep breath," she told herself aloud. She was rambling. "Okay, but how can we do that? I'm under CIA custody and you are a fugitive in practically every country in the world. What would the CIA do if they found out that I willing went with you? What would my parents do? Oh god, I don't even want to think about what Sydney would do. She hates you."

"Don't I know that," Sark replied huffily.

April gave him a quizzical look. "Why does she hate you?"

"We just have a long history. Mostly consisting of fighting, physically, and banter that means nothing. I think the biggest thing is that she's jealous because Irina has never lied to me and that is all their mother-daughter relationship consists of."

"Wow."

"Exactly." Julian was telling the truth. Maybe Irina never told him everything, but he knew a lot more about her then Sydney did and that the underlying tension between the two of them came from Irina Derevko.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, April raised her upper body off Julian. "What are we going to do? Where are we going to go? -"

He placed his index finger over her mouth to silence her, "First I have a good amount of money in offshore accounts. Second I have a property in France that no one knows about, not even Irina."

"So…we'll be safe."

"Yes."

"Good." April needed his assurance. He gave it to her. She told herself that if he thought they were going to be all right then they would be.

"Now for getting you out of the grasp of the CIA," Sark took in his surroundings, trying to figure out the best possible way. They could walk through the front door. He did that to get in there, but Vaughn and Weiss were not looking, which was completely stupid on their part, but he had a feeling he wouldn't be so lucky the second time around. There were the two windows up, twelve feet off the ground. That wasn't a possibility since it was too high off the ground and the windows were small. He could pretend that he was kidnapping her again, but do it in front of Vaughn and Weiss. That one might have a few more side effects.

Right now that might be the only thing they had going for them. Granted it might bring more charges against him, but now the numbers were so high he figured that a few more years would not make that much more of a difference.

"April you are going to have to cooperate with me."

"Julian I don't like the sound of that," she said warily. He had that tone in his voice that made his plan sound dangerous.

"It's not that bad, but it might have us reverberate our relationship back to what we started as."

"Dance partners?" April furrowed her eyebrows.

Julian tilted his head and let out a light laugh, "Okay, maybe post dance partners."

"Ah, kidnapper-captive relationship. Now that makes more sense. I was wondering where you were going with the whole dance partners thing."

He smiled at her innocent approach to life. "Well, the only way that we are going to get out of here is if it looks like I took you by force." He noted April tense up, but he consoled her, "It's only way for us to get out of here with them not hurting either of us. If I have a gun to your back they won't shoot me."

April turned her face away from him and turned her body so that her back was against the wall. "I don't like it."

"You don't have to like it, but it's the only way." Sark rubbed her shoulder.

She shook her head to the side, reasoning and then giving in, "Fine. I'll do it, but I won't like it."

"Sweetheart, that makes it all the more believable." He kissed the top of her forehead.

He stood up and brushed his black pants and his long-sleeved black shirt off. Dirt seemed to have accumulated in ten minutes. After Sark finished, he held out his hand for April to get up off the ground.

"Thank you," she replied softly.

"Your welcome." Sark and April exchanged a meaningful glance. They both just wanted to look at each other.

April took in Julian's whole appearance. Obviously he was wearing designer clothes. They were all black, she noticed. No one else she knew could wear it so well. He had a tired look about him. Of course he always had the façade of the world-hopping residential bad boy that never slept, but today he looked tired.

He was staring at her too. Sark realized how different they were just in their appearance. She in her jogging suit and him in his designer duds, they definitely did not have the same style. He looked even further. Noticing her brown hair and brown eyes, they contrasted to his blond hair and blue eyes. They were different. But he thought that might just be a good thing.

"Ready."

She gave a weak smile, "Ready as I'll ever be."

"Good."

-------------

They had done it. They had escaped CIA custody without a scratch. There were a few words exchanged, but they made it to the private jet that took Julian and April to France. For now, they were safe. Sitting in the chateau that they now both called home.


	19. Chapter 19

It had been six months. Six months since they had vanished from the world. No one knew where they went or what they were doing. They were in oblivion. For awhile, they were both content, knowing that it was only them. No one else to bother them. There was no Covenant, no Irina Derevko, no CIA. Nothing, just them.

Angst lurked inside April though. She could not live like this forever, hidden away from everyone. Understanding that this was perhaps the only situation they could be together in and actually participating in that particular situation was an entirely different thing. There was something missing. It was hiding, but she didn't think it would be too long before it was exposed. Her train of thought drifted from the book she was reading. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, a first edition, given to her by Julian to celebrate their two month anniversary not only as mates, but as fugitives. She stared at the worn cover and traced her fingers over the title. Anna Karenina, it just rolled off the tongue.

Normally books allowed her to concentrate, but her mind wouldn't let her. For some reason, she kept thinking about her dad and her newly discovered cousin. She didn't like the fact that she had left them stranded with no answers. They most likely assumed that she was being held captive by Julian or dead.

According to what Julian had told her about his alter-ego Mr. Sark, he was essentially a thieve, liar, murderer, anything that could enable him to stay alive.

Of course it sounded naive to say that she could not see this as a side of Julian, but she could not. When April was with him, he was not cold and heartless, like the rest of the world assumed. He was gentle, sweet, and completely desirable.

Desire. That was something that continued to discombobulate her. Here she was, in the first real relationship in her life and she loved him. Okay, maybe she had not admitted that aloud yet, but she felt it. Whenever he entered a room or she felt him close by her, she got these shivers all over her body. She wanted to be able to express it too. Obviously he was way more experienced in this department than she was. How could he not be? Obviously, she had thought about it. How could she not think about the possibility of having sex with Julian Sark? And she thought about.

Earlier in the relationship she could always use the excuse with herself that she did not know him well enough. That was not really an option anymore. April knew down the very detail who he was. She knew his favorite book. His favorite movie. His favorite color. Even the way he liked his eggs and toast. There was no way that excuse would pass.

Maybe she just wasn't ready. But she knew she was. There were not any logical explanations. It was just truth, and she should take it as such. Frustrated with her train of thought, April closed the novel and placed it on the table in front of the her comfy chair in the chateau's library. Her mind was not thinking straight anymore. She had to talk to him.

Rising from the comfortable place she was in, April marched off towards the place she knew he would be in. The study. Come to think of it, he had been in there a lot lately.

She walked up the door, which was halfway opened and before she stepped in, April lightly knocked on the door. Noting that Julian was on the phone with someone she most likely did not know, speaking a totally different language, which every word was completely foreign to her; April believed her most affective way to get his attention was to make eye contact.

After April walked in, she regretted it. Julian started yelling and he did not notice her.

"You tell me what is on that manuscript or personally I will pay you a visit, and we both know that is not a good idea!" Julian yelled in German. The phone slammed into the receiver.

Regaining his thoughts, Sark ran his hands through his hair. He looked up.

"April," he started apologetically.

"No I'll come back," April started to turn away from him.

"Don't." Moving his way from around the back of his desk Sark started after her. He held onto her wrists before she got away.

"Julian, we don't have to do this right now. You are upset. I'll talk to you later."

His grip tightened on her hand. "No. You obviously want to talk about

something so let's."

"Really?"

"Yes, really," he said to reassure her.

Before they started talking, he led her to the sitting room that they spent hours just talking and sleeping in. There were a lot of memories in that room. Both of them sat down on the comfortable couch next to each other.

"First, what was that about? I've never seen you get that hyped up about a phone call."

"Nothing important," he said quickly. Most of him did not want April to find out what he was up to.

April did not really buy that excuse, but she trusted him for what it was worth and decided to move on to the more pressing topic. "What are we doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"What are we doing? I mean are we just going to hide out here forever and no one will ever find us. Are we going to stay at this same spot we are at and have been at for six months? You and I do not have the most conventional relationship." April did not want to sound harsh. She knew that she was being straight forward, but she did not want him to feel pressured to marry her or anything. God knows she wasn't ready for it either.

Telling himself the honest truth, Julian was thinking about it too. There had been this place they had been at. It was comfortable, but it was missing the same spark they had when they had first embarked on this relationship. "I know. Why don't we take a vacation or something. Go to Italy, maybe Fiji if you want something tropical. This stuffy, old French chateau is starting to cave in on me too." He wanted to make sure that she was happy with him. He knew he could not get any better than April. She was the best thing to happen to his life since, well since ever.

"Really? Do you think that'll help?" April asked optimistically. She sounded so innocent.

"Of course. We can leave tomorrow. I can set everything up tonight."

"Great. Where can we go?"

"I can arrange for a house in southern Italy or I can get us in a

resort in Fiji."

"How about Italy?"

"Of course," he smiled at her.

"I'm so excited."

Sark raised himself off the couch, "I just have get the arrangements in order and then how about tonight we pack a little then we can watch

a movie. Something relaxing?"

"Wonderful."

She watch him disappear down the hall to his study, where he would be planning their vacation. It seemed like this whole living in France was a vacation. Well, this can be a vacation in a vacation. April hated to admit this to herself, but vacations come to an end. There was a feeling in her, that this vacation was ending soon too.


End file.
